APA
style is explained in the Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association. This book contains over 260 pages of
detailed information, involving rules and guidelines for manuscript layout and
citations. However, I am presenting a very brief discussion of some of the
aspects of the APA style, in this chapter. To compensate for this
short presentation, I am providing hyperlinks to web-based material from other
authors to cover the subject in detail.

This
chapter was written with the assumption that readers, that wanted to master the
APA style, would use the hyperlinks to access the additional information, and
purchased and study the book mentioned above.

The blue underlined words in this chapter are the
hyperlinks, to access the websites from other authors, which contain videos,
articles, tutorials, and other useful material. The
hyperlinks that are directly in the body of the text are to access
sources that were used for this chapter. The links at the end of
sections, and subsections are for additional information, alternative points of
view, or to support or supplement the material in this text.

The
APA Style,is a writing and citation style created by the
American Psychological Association, and their primary site
is www.APA.org.
This organization has another website that is specifically
focused on the APA style, which iswww.APAstyle.org.

The
APA style was created for the behavioral sciences, but it is also used for
other types of writing, especially in colleges and universities.

The sources I
used for the APA style can be accessed by clicking on hyperlinks, which are
connected to relevant portions of this text. To access the source directly,
left click on the blue underlined words.

“Basics
of APA Style Tutorial” is one of the
primary sources for this chapter. This tutorial is in a flash format, with an
audio narration, and it contains 25 pages. The tutorial has a number of examples link to it, in the PDF format. I linked various
subsections of this chapter to the corresponding PDF examples.

From
the Purdue Online Writing Lab, I am
using as a primary source “APA
Formatting and Style Guide” This guide consists of 17 webpages.
Some of these webpages have links to PDF documents, including asample paper written
in the APA style. Additional sources include the following videos:

With
the APA style, the entire paper should be double-spaced, with 1-inch margins on
four sides. The text should be in an easy-to-read font, such as times new
Roman, 12-point. Tables, and figure labels can be in Arial 12-point. The page
number is placed on the upper right margin. The APA style uses five levels of
headings, which are probably unnecessary for most of the papers that students
write. For additional information, see the Purdue webpages on APA
headings, and General
Format

The
APA style uses a title page, and there is a running head on each page, which is
explained in detail in the following subsection.

A running head in APA
style is a CAPITALIZED TITLE that is no more than 50 characters. This is
generally the most important portion of the title of the article or paper.
If the title of the paper is short, it can be the entire title written in
capital letters. See the following example from the Purdue sample paper.

The
Purdue online paper has the running head directly in the margin, on the left
side, opposite the page number, so that it automatically appears on every page,
with most word processor software. “VARYING
DEFINITIONS OF ONLINE COMMUNICATION”

One of the primary purposes
of a running head, in APA style, is to identify papers that are evaluated in
the peer review process, with blind submission. Blind submission means
the author’s name is removed to avoid favoritism or prejudice in the evaluation
process. Without blind submissions, articles written by famous psychologist
might be favored, over articles written by less well-known individuals, regardless
of the merit of the material.

The utility
described above, is not relevant in the classroom. Thus, when papers are
written for course work, it might be more practical to substitute the running
head, with the student’s name. The appropriateness of modifications of this
nature, are ultimately determined by the instructor of the course.

The
sections of a paper written in the APA style, is similar to the style used in
scientific papers, and in academic writing. This involves eight basic
sections, which are presented below.

If
you want to see examples of each of the sections, left click on the blue
underlined words, and a PDF document will open. These documents are from page
3 of the “Basics
of APA Style Tutorial”

1) The
TITLE PAGE contains a descriptive title, the author’s
name, affiliations, contact information, and supporters or sponsor of the
research. On the very top of the page, there is a running head.

2) The
ABSTRACTis
a summary of the entire paper, including the experimental results and related
conclusion(s). The abstract should be approximately 150 to 250 words. Creating
a concise summary of this nature can be challenging, and it will probably
require several drafts to achieve the desired result.

3) The
INTRODUCTIONleads into the basic
topic, thesis, hypothesis, or focus of a research project.

4) In
the METHOD sectionthe techniques and
general procedures used for an experiment, or a survey are explained. This
includes the equipment, and the materials that were used.

5) The
RESULTS sectionis for explaining
the outcome of an experiment, without interpreting the meaning or significance
of the results.

Note,
if you want to see the results section, from the tutorial, do the following:
left click on the link: The
RESULTS section and the methods section will open.
Then scroll down towards the lower portion of page 11, and you will see the
results section.

The
direct link to the results section, from the tutorial was incomplete, which is
apparently an error. This may have been corrected after this webpage was
created. You can access the results section directly by clicking on the
following linkRESULTS.

8) The
APPENDICEScontains additional
details, which are not essential for understanding the primary ideas presented
in the paper. This can be tables, diagrams, additional examples, descriptions,
or details about equipment or materials used in the experiment.

The APA style uses a
citation format call the author-date format. This involves the author’s last
name, and the date of the work is placed in parentheses. On page 14, of the “Basics
of APA Style Tutorial” there are
three variations of the author-date citation style, which I am representing
with the following formulas:

1) Author’s
last name (year) statement from source

Example: Doe, (2005) “Honesty and integrity is a priceless
quality”

2) Statement
from source (Author’s last name, year)

Example: “Honesty and integrity is a priceless quality” (Doe, 2005)

3) In
year, Author’s last name, statement from source

Example: In 2005, Doe, stated, “Honesty and integrity is a
priceless quality”

The in-line citations must
be presented in more detail in the Reference List, in the following hanging
paragraph configuration.

Author’s last name, authors first
name,*1 (the year of
publication). The name of the article or book. The name of the journal, if
relevant. The digital object identifier if available, which is abbreviated and
followed by a colon, such as doi:67.2643/C336490*2

See the examples, which
followed the two explanatory notes presented below.

Note*1:
When there are two or more authors, the first author’s name is presented as
indicated above (last name first followed by the given name), and the remaining
authors are presented with the given name first, followed by the last name.

Note*2:
The digital object identifier is an alphanumeric system that was created to
identify and locate online material. For details, see the following websites: Digital object identifier, and
www.doi.org

Two examples of APA style
citations for a reference list are presented below:

Example 1, a reference list citation for a
book with one author

Doe, John, (2005). The Book
of Truth, second edition, Doe Publishing Company doi:67.2643/C336490

Example 2, a reference list citation for an
article

Doe, John, (2005). The
Ultimate Truth. The International Journal of Truth and Reality

To
illustrate block quotes in APA style, I am quoting over 40 words from
the Purdue online writing lab, “In-Text
Citations: The Basics.” This example starts with my own
introductory words, and the quote itself is in a block formation.

The Purdue online writing lab has a webpage that clearly explains
the APA style of block quotes, as follows:

Place direct quotations that are 40 words, or longer, in a free-standing
block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a
new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you
would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and
indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch
from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical
citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.

Below
is the hyperlink table of contents of this chapter. If you left click on a
section or subsection, it will appear on your computer screen. Note the
chapter heading, the yellow highlighted sections, and the blue subheadings are active
links.